DARWIN'S VIEWS OF METHOD. 35 



not convinced, partly, I think, owing to the 

 deductive cast of much of his reasoning; and 

 I know not why, but I never feel convinced by 

 deduction, even in the case of H. Spencer's 

 writings"; 1 and in a letter to John Fiske, "I 

 find that my mind is so fixed by the inductive 

 method, that I cannot appreciate deductive 

 reasoning; I must begin with a good body of 

 facts, and not from principle (in which I always 

 suspect some fallacy), and then as much deduc- 

 tion as you please." 2 



Now deduction means, in one of its* senses, 

 reasoning from the general to the particular, 

 from a law, principle, or general fact to a 

 particular fact. But in the above quotations 

 Darwin meant by deduction, and the deductive 

 method, reasoning from postulates the truth of 

 which is accepted as beyond dispute. Induc- 

 tion, as a logical process, means reasoning 

 from particular to general, from facts to laws 

 or principles. But induction, or inductive 

 method, when used in a sense synonymous 

 with scientific method, includes all the logical 

 processes, induction, deduction, analogy, veri- 

 fication, every way in which the intellect 

 passes from fact to fact. This is widely differ- 

 ent from what Bacon originally meant by induc- 



1 Life and Letters, Vol. II. p. 346. 2 Ibid., p. 371. 



